Palestinian
footballer Mahmoud Sarsak is still on hunger strike and is determined
to continue until he dies or Israel agrees to free him, his lawyer
Mahmoud Jabarin said today.

The news came as football legend Eric Cantona and other major
public figures, and FIFA President Sepp Blatter, joined the growing
international calls on Israel to free Sarsak and end its abuses of human rights.

After coming close to death on Sunday, Sarsak has agreed to take milk only until Thursday when the Israeli Supreme Court is due to review his case.

Last chance to save him

Mahmoud al-Sarsak is on his 86th day of hunger strike but is
drinking milk to prolong his life until his court hearing Thursday, his
lawyer said Tuesday.
Mohammad Jabarein told Ma’an that Israeli prison officials called
him to visit al-Sarsak urgently Sunday because he was in danger of
dying. Al-Sarsak was briefly hospitalized that afternoon.
Jabarein met with 15 doctors at the hospital, who said al-Sarsak was at immediate danger of paralysis and losing consciousness.“I decided that al-Sarsak must drink milk,” Jabarein said.
Al-Sarsak was reluctant, but the lawyer said he persuaded him to accept some nutrients so he would survive until his judicial review, which is scheduled for Thursday.
Al-Sarsak agreed to drink milk but would only be fed by his lawyer.The 25-year-old prisoner has decided that if the Supreme
Court does not agree to release him he will refuse all supplements until
his death, Jabarein said.
The judicial review Thursday is the “last chance” to save al-Sarsak’s life, Jabarein said.

Life still in danger

Despite his decision to take milk, Sarsak’s life is still in danger, as Ma’an notes:

The prisoner rights group Addameer notes that consuming milk does not break a hunger strike.
A representative of Physicians for Human Rights - Israel told Ma’an that milk
is less nutritious than other supplements consumed during a hunger
strike, which include vitamins, minerals, salts and glucose.
Drinking milk will not reduce the danger to al-Sarsak’s life, PHRI added.

FIFA president Sepp Blatter urges Israel to act to save Sarsak

FIFA president Sepp Blatter called on the Israeli Football
Association (IFA) to urge the Israeli government to act to save Sarsak,
whom Blatter said, “is in a very delicate state due to the fact that he
has been undergoing a hunger strike for approximately 90 days in protest
of his alleged illegal detention.” Blatter’s official statement added:

FIFA urgently calls on IFA to draw the attention of the Israeli
competent authorities to the present matter, with the aim of ensuring
the physical integrity of the concerned players as well as their right
for due process. The matter came to FIFA’s attention following
correspondence with the Palestine Football Association, several
international media reports concerning the football player Mahmoud
Sarsak and a FIFPro media release.

Football legend Eric Cantona, other public figures join campaign for Sarsak

Football legend Eric Cantona has co-signed a letter with other
international figures including Noam Chomksy, filmmaker Ken Loach,
international law expert John Dugard to UK Sports Minister Hugh
Robertson, UEFA President Michel Platini and other European government
and sporting bodies to protest Israel’s actions and the complicity of international sporting bodies.
The letter, the text of which was provided to The Electronic Intifada by bdsmovement.net in an email release states:

We are all shocked at the racist chanting at football matches in
Poland and Ukraine where Euro 2012 is being played. Footballing bodies
and politicians have been outspoken in their condemnation. Indeed some
government officials are boycotting group stage matches in Ukraine
because of perceived human rights abuses in that country.

So why are these same groups silent when Israel is to host
the U.E.F.A. Under 21s competition in 2013? Racism, human rights abuses
and gross violations of international law are daily occurrences in that
country.

Israeli government ministers respond to mob attacks on black
refugees by denouncing them as ‘infiltrators’ and calling for them to be
imprisoned in military camps.
Israeli jails house around 4,000 Palestinian political prisoners,
more than 300 of them “administrative detainees” held without charge or
trial. One of these is a footballer from Gaza, Mahmoud Sarsak,
aged 25. He has been imprisoned for nearly three years. No charge, no
trial. In desperation, he has been on hunger strike for more than 80
days and is now close to death. He, and all victims of abuse by the Israeli state, need our support.

It is time to end Israel’s impunity and to insist on the same
standards of equality, justice and respect for international law that we
demand of other states.’FULL LIST OF SIGNATORIES, SIGNING IN PERSONAL CAPACITY:

Eric Cantona, actor and former footballer

Noam Chomsky, Professor MIT, USA

John Dugard, Former Special Rapporteur of UN on Palestine, South Africa

Break the Chains.info

is a news and discussion forum for supporters of political prisoners, prisoners of war, politicized social prisoners, and victims of police and state intimidation.

This blog is organized and updated autonomously of the disbanded Break the Chains Prisoner Support Network formerly based in Eugene, Oregon. While this online project shares several of the same concerns as the old Break the Chains collective, no formal organization exists behind the current web presence.

"I will never surrender my pride and dignity nor allow the system to 'cut my tongue' and I will always, without fear, speak out against these war crimes and crimes against humanity, no matter if I spend the rest of my life in a prison cage, and draw my last breath of air laying down in this steel bed surrounded by razor-wire fences and cages, and its prison policies that are designed to destroy one's humanity…."